


Ever Changing, Ever the Same

by silveryink



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Brotherly Love, Endgame never happened, Gen, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 05:55:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20110228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveryink/pseuds/silveryink
Summary: Not everything is as it seems, Thor finds, in the battlefield. Then again, he should have expected this.





	Ever Changing, Ever the Same

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! I found this sitting in my folder of drafts, and decided to polish it up a little. It's been a while (nearly six months) since I've posted Marvel content, but I absolutely had to write something to spite IW and Endgame. I hope you all enjoy!

Thor wasn’t quite sure whether to believe his eyes. A bright green flash had momentarily blinded him, before two figures stumbled out from it. One of them quickly slashed out, causing a… something… of ice to splinter through the tarnished gold of Thanos’ gauntlet. Thor blinked rapidly to adjust his eyes, especially the bionic one, which whirred lightly and refocused on…

No, the Norns _had_ to be playing a trick on him.

“You’ve taken exactly a day without me to send things to Helheim,” Loki observed calmly, ignoring the sheet of frost enveloping Thanos’ head and carefully extracting the gauntlet from Thanos’ now mutilated arm. “Seriously, the Time Stone was your game-changer. Why in the name of Bor is it sitting in this chunk of metal?”

It was a wonder how he sounded like their mother, while still covered in - wait.

“You’re alive,” Thor said slowly, also ignoring the frost cracking through – nope, he was definitely ignoring it.

“A stellar observation,” Loki said dryly. “And I brought a friend.”

Heimdall waved awkwardly, unsure of what exactly to do. Thor shook his head once in disbelief. “How…?”

“Would you believe, Thanos and the Maw did a sloppy job at killing us. It _did _take a while for me to heal myself completely,” he gestured vaguely towards his neck, and Thor had to clench his new axe tightly to stop the quick flashes of memory. “But when I was done, I found that Heimdall was also, somehow, alive.”

“He healed me and we teleported here,” Heimdall summarized helpfully. Thor could always count on his best friend to be succinct. He stepped forward and clapped him on his shoulder. Loki stepped away, presumably to finish off his old tormentor. Thor wouldn’t deny him that, and he really didn’t want to know how he did so. That Loki could be creative when it came to plotting someone’s demise was the understatement of the millennium.

“It’s good to see you,” he said warmly. Heimdall clasped his hand firmly.

“Likewise.” He cast a sideways glance at Loki, before adding, “You might want to make sure he doesn’t drain himself.”

“I supposed healing two near-fatal injuries might have done that to his reserves,” Thor said, because that was the only way he could cope with whatever was going on. His mind and thoughts, of course, were a completely different story, whirling around, nearly incoherent except for _they’re alive they’re alive_-

“He’s gone,” Loki said suddenly. “The universe’s greatest threat has been slain, by yours truly.”

“I did eighty percent of the job,” Thor protested, how was he so calm?

“But did you kill him?” Loki retorted, and Thor lunged at him. Loki raised his arms instinctively before Thor smothered him in a hug. The trickster stiffened, unsure of what to do in this situation. Truly, it was the one thing Thor could never quite get about his brother. Confront him with true emotions, and he’d fall apart where he would make others weep in other circumstances.

“Never do that again,” Thor murmured into Loki’s hair.

“Kill Thanos? Thor, he’s already-”

He really should have expected that. Norns, his brother was just terrible with emotions, wasn’t he?

“Don’t go dying on me again,” he clarified, burying his face in Loki’s shoulder. He could feel Loki awkwardly patting him on the back, though his stiff posture relaxed slightly.

“I don’t have any plans to die today,” he said.

“None do,” Thor echoed automatically, thinking back to that ages-old conversation, but he couldn’t help but believe that this right here, what his brother was promising, would be the ultimate truth.


End file.
